She’s putting two words together now.
At seventeen months old, Sophia’s vocabulary is rapidly
expanding. I’m convinced learning to sign (capturing the
concept visually first) is the reason. As with Brandon,
we started with "eat" and "more." "Done" is Mommy's
creation. To eliminate the ear-splitting screech Sophia voiced
to escape mealtime confinement, Dawn taught Sophia to slam her hands down onto
the highchair tray when she's finished a meal.
She signs "eat" a lot. And "more" as well. She eats a
variety of things but prefers fruits and vegetables. And
cookies. Although she recognizes the sign for cookie, she never
signed it. She went right
to the word. And she says it perfectly.
She has a book with a soft ball on it. Ball was one of
her next words. Now anything circular in shape is a ball --
the smoke protector, O’s, light bulbs.
She has spent some weekends with her paternal grandparents.
Their household consists of Nana, Pappap and Hunter, the dog.
We were looking at pictures the other day and she pointed at
Hunter and said "Pap." Seeing Nana, she voiced something
sounding like "unner." She knows they belong together,
but she doesn’t yet know who’s who.
Sophia says juice, signs water and knows the difference.
She identifies her ear, hair, nose, mouth and eyes.
It’s difficult to rock her to sleep (which I occasionally
like to do), because she lies in my arms, one thumb in her
mouth and the finger of her other hand tapping the lens
of my glasses, saying "eye." Then she moves to my ear,
pulls on the earring, says "ear," and then touches her own.
The inflection in her voice often gives a clue to what she’s
trying to say. Most recently there are three syllables strung
out in a sing-song voice as she tries to say, "Where are you?"
Two-syllable words often repeat the consonant: Elmo is Memo,
Gramma is Maama, Bunny (her blanket with long-eared rabbit head
at the center) is Bucky.
Foot is toof. Sock is cox.
Two words together? "More cookie."
And just yesterday, "Where are you, Bucky?"
